HCL Commerce Accelerate Company’s Innovation, Engagement, and Selling at Scale
                     HCL Commerce 
Accelerating how companies innovate, engage, 
and sell at scale
How companies go to market is rapidly changing in today’s world and your digital strategy is playing an even more important role in 
the success of your business. Market changes happen rapidly, competitors can introduce innovations without warning, requiring a 
modern commerce platform that is adaptable, innovative, agile and enterprise grade, that supports every business model, B2B, B2C 
or B2B2C, so they can succeed in this fast-changing world.
HCL Commerce is designed to adapt to your business strategy, not the other way around, helping your commerce experiences lead 
the pack instead of having to follow the herd with a templated approach. With HCL Commerce you can support the individuality of 
your brands, as well as pivot to address current and future business needs quickly and elegantly so you can grow with confidence 
and deliver a consistently inspiring experience.
Key Benefits
Innovate more in less time Drive market share Save time and cost  
with a modern, cloud ready, by taking advantage of unmatched by reducing dependency on IT with 
extensible architecture omnichannel commerce capability easy-to-use business user tools
Improve customer experience  Enhance your capabilities Support for both B2B, and B2C 
with personalized interactions with a broad ecosystem of HCL and and B2B2C
across all touchpointsarchitecture third-party commerce services use cases
Key Differentiators
Adaptable
Pivot to a new business model, brand or channel quickly and easily all on the same platform, no need to add a new 
environment or buy another platform.
Modern
HCL Commerce uses a container-based approach so you can easily deploy innovation and code changes non-stop even 
through peak.
Agile
With a deep and comprehensive set of APIs you can quickly build the customer experience you want to represent your 
brand.
• Enterprise Grade – so you can scale to handle any trac or transaction volume.
• Cloud Agnostic – so you can run your platform on any cloud or on-premise or a combination of the two.
Architecture
“Cloud native technologies empower organizations to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. Containers, service meshes, microservices, immutable infrastructure, and declarative APIs exemplify this approach.
These techniques enable loosely coupled systems that are resilient, manageable, and observable. Combined with robust 
automation, they allow engineers to make high-impact changes frequently and predictably with minimal toil.
Cloud Native Computing Foundation Charter
HCL Commerce is cloud native based upon the industry standard defined by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and these 
four pillars:
• Continuous Delivery describes a process which when adopted, enables developers to release applications more quickly, reliably and 
frequently, while reducing the risk and increasing the quality.
• DevOps describes a process for software developers and IT operations professionals to collaborate better in order automate the process 
of software delivery.
• Micro-services is an architectural approach to building an application by delivering it as a collection of small services that run 
independently and communicate via APIs.
• Containers provide the ability to manage and migrate the application dependencies along with the application while abstracting away the 
OS and the underlying cloud platform in many cases.1 
1 https://medium.com/velotio-perspectives/cloud-native-applications-the-why-the-what-the-how-9b2d31897496
“
Continuous Delivery
Through the use of separate Docker containers for store, search, transactions and client customizations that fully 
encapsulate application logic, middleware and the operating system layer, clients are themselves empowered to deploy 
applications via continuous innovation/continuous delivery since these images mean less manual work, allowing you to 
install and upgrade faster and deploy customizations in an automated way and giving the client a lower cost of 
ownership for their commerce platform.
DevOps
HCL also leverage Docker to make the set-up, deployment and management of commerce environments quick and easy 
so developers and deployment engineers (IT Operations) can configure development, test and production environments 
in a matter of hours with minimal manual processes and intervention. Docker images make cloning new instances fast 
and error free, and consuming HCL provided commerce system enhancements seamless, giving businesses the agility 
needed to seize market opportunities, launch new sites and innovate the customer experience faster than ever before. 
We also provide deep support services with extensive experience helping clients establish a cloud native architecture 
and organization to get the most out of their HCL Commerce (and other Docker-based) platform.
Micro-services
HCL took a slightly dierent approach to microservices by bundling them together based on a clear business function 
they supported – a Business Service. This was done to reduce the maintenance burden while still enabling the 
independence of those key applications. By logically group applications into 4 distinct business services, each residing in 
a container – storefront, search, customizations and transaction – we made it simple for organizations to change, add, or 
update the business service without aecting any of the others business services. 
Containers
With the introduction of version 9, HCL Commerce simplified platform management, introducing Docker containers.  
Docker makes it easier to create, deploy, and run applications, by allowing eCommerce professionals to package an 
application with all of the parts it needs, from the OS up to the application its libraries and other dependencies, and ship 
it all out as one package.  The benefits of Docker are well understood and well documented. 
The following have been taken from ‘Understanding the Business Value of Docker’, Docker Whitepaper, June 2017. 
  • “70 - 90x Decrease in Application Maintenance & Support” 
  • “65% Reduced Developer Onboarding Time” 
  • “25%+ Reduced Compute Resources” by containerizing’ apps and consolidating Virtual Machines (VMs) 
  • “30 – 35% Reduced Storage Footprint” 
  • “5 – 10% Reduced Memory Requirements” 
  • “13x More Application Releases” 
  • “10x Increase in Scalability” 
Kubernetes
Kubernetes is a production-ready, open source platform designed with Google's accumulated experience in container 
orchestration including automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, combined with 
best-of-breed ideas from the community.
With modern web services, users expect applications to be available 24/7, and developers expect to deploy new 
versions of those applications several times a day. Containerization helps package software to serve these goals, 
enabling applications to be released and updated in an easy and fast way without downtime. Kubernetes helps you 
make sure those containerized applications run where and when you want and helps them find the resources and tools 
they need to work. 
Headless / Starter store
HCL Commerce has been an API first platform for more than 5 years, developing extensive APIs and webhooks to 
ensure our customers have the flexibility they need to succeed. 
By exposing all Commerce functions as REST-APIs, combined with the capabilities of both Containers and business 
services, B2C and B2B users can can more quickly and easily adapt to market changes, incorporating new marketing 
and selling channels as they arise. APIs also make it easy to integrate new innovations from your partners so you can 
deliver better customer experiences - for example by allowing any content experience using any content management 
system.  
Further, by combining a strong API strategy with webhooks  you can help fill the gaps in an API-first approach so you 
can be sure you’re capturing all the relevant data when you need it so you can make better faster decisions. Some of the 
benefits of webhooks include: 
  • A more ecient exchange of data, keyed o of events, so you don’t waste API calls; 
  • The ability to support inconsistently changing data; 
  • Provision of near) real-time information. 
There are, of course, situations where having a reliable and trusted storefront that is built on industry best practices so 
you can quickly and easily spin up a new site, whether that be for a new campaign, a new brand or a new geography. 
The React reference storefront provides the speed, reliability and security you need to be able to provide a great 
customer experience fast.
Key Capabilities
SPA and PWA Starter Stores for B2B and B2C built on React mean brands can reduce the time and cost of implementation 
with stores built on modern technology leveraging industry best practices and years of customer input.
API-first approach so brands can create and deploy any customer experience strategy. All commerce functions are exposed as 
Level 3 REST APIs so they can build customer focused experiences. Embedded Content Management System (CMS) and 
Digital Asset Management (DAM) with rich functionality, included without charge enables business users to make changes to 
your store.
Precision Marketing gives brands complete control 
to deliver timely and relevant promotions and 
oers. This is critical to maintain an on-going dialog 
with customers and build stronger relationships.
Promotions to incent purchase behavior and 
drive sales. More than 150 promotions delivered 
out of the box that can be configured to target 
specific customers, segments, online behavior, 
purchase history and more. You can even create 
hierarchies to prioritize, stack and define how 
promotions are redeemed.
Advanced site search and navigation that make it 
easy for customers to find what they’re looking for 
quickly and easily. By giving business users the 
ability to control the customer experience with 
personalized content and site discovery, the 
customer comes away satisfied with their 
experience and more likely to return.
Global multi-site capabilities that enable brands to easily build and manage multiple storefronts on a single platform. Strike the 
perfect balance between local control of catalog and merchandising and centralized management.
Deep business user tooling so all the key stakeholders can get the most out of the platform, whether they’re creating new 
website, promotions, search parameters, personalization and more.
HCL and third-party integrations built by our extensive ecosystem of global partners, geared to enhance your customer’s 
experience and extend HCL Commerce’s capabilities.
Built-in customer service functionality to enable customer service reps (CSR) to support online customers. Call center 
capabilities are embedded in the platform and the CSRs can deliver a better experience as they see what the customer sees 
through a simple web interface, for both B2B and B2C.
Merchandising that works intuitively, allowing merchandisers to quickly make changes and automate tasks to help them focus 
more on product strategy. They can even create rules at the SKU level, giving them incredible flexibility to promote and sell while 
achieving high margins.
Personalization that can be adjusted in real-time based on customer behavior and history. Product recommendations, 
promotions, oers and more can be built for a specific customer at a specific time.
Catalog management that is easy to use helps business users manage catalogs, categories, catalog entries, merchandising 
associations, product attributes, and attachments in the store through a robust inheritance model. 
Product information management (PIM) to help centralize data and provide consistently accurate and rich product information 
on any channel it is needed - web sites, print catalogs, ERP systems and electronic date feeds among others. It also helps 
organizations across multiple verticals (for e.g Retail, Distribution, Manufacturing, Financial etc) speed up the time to market and 
accelerates marketing eciency.
16 languages and 30+ currencies supported out of the box so brands can easily expand their international reach.
Key Considerations and Planning
Before jumping into an implementation of HCL Commerce V9.X there are some basic requirements you should plan on in order 
to get the most out of your deployment as quickly as possible. Architecturally, the below simplified graphic will give you a sense 
of what your set-up should look like to optimize your cloud-native strategy. Every case is dierent so you should engage with 
our Advisory services team and your preferred partner to learn more and build a go-to-market strategy leveraging both pools of 
experience in moving to cloud native.
In Summary
HCL Commerce makes agile commerce @ scale a reality for enterprise companies. Leveraging a modern, cloud-ready, extensible 
architecture our clients can deliver more innovation in less time to unlock growth, achieve higher ROI, accelerate innovation and 
reduce their business risk. HCL combines the trusted scale, security and performance you expect, with the speed and flexibility 
of a modern cloud-ready, extensible commerce architecture – all built on 20 years of unmatched, omni-channel innovation that’s 
been co-created with our customers and partners. Start delivering world-class experiences that are easy to customize on a 
platform that enables non-stop innovation. 
Visit the website to learn more.
Knowledge Center: https://help.hcltechsw.com/commerce/index.html
Docker: https://youtu.be/6gJs0F8V3tM
Kubernetes: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/
Resources
Apache Kafka: https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/
Apache ZooKeeper: https://zookeeper.apache.org/
Redhat OpenShift: https://youtu.be/5dwMrFxq8sU
Prometheus: https://prometheus.io/docs/introduction/overview/
Grafana: https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/
Elasticsearch: https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/
Jenkins: https://jenkins.io/doc/
Redis: https://redis.io/documentation
Gluster: https://youtu.be/ml6xRrkum2M
NGINX: https://youtu.be/UExhlDjJ2_M
Vault: https://youtu.be/VYfl-DpZ5wM
About HCL Software
HCL Software is a division of HCL Technologies (HCL) that operates its primary software business. It develops, markets, sells, and supports over 20 
product families in the areas of DevOps, Automation, Digital Solutions, Data Management, and Mainframes. HCL Software has oces and labs around the 
world to serve thousands of customers. Its mission is to drive ultimate customer success with their IT investments through relentless innovation of its 
products.  For more information, please visit www.hcltechsw.com.
Copyright © 2020 HCL Technologies Limited.